Which to use
“fouilles” and “fouillis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,712
- “fouilles” frequency rank
- #43,950
- “fouillis” frequency rank
- 52662
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fouilles | fouillis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de fouille. | Entassement d'éléments disparates, pêle-mêle, juxtaposés par hasard, ou sans ordre, sans cohérence, sans méthode, sans intention clairement définie. |
Where the eye mixes fouilles and fouillis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. fouilles and fouillis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses fouilles with fouillis
A purely visual mix-up. fouilles (\fuj\) and fouillis (\fu.ji\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - e in “fouilles” becomes i in “fouillis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52662, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fouilles is recorded at frequency rank #8,712, classified as anoun, pronounced \fuj\. fouillis is at rank #43,950, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fu.ji\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 52662, this pair ranks #146,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fouilles vs fouillis
Shared letters: filosu. Private to "fouilles": e. Private to "fouillis": -.
"fouilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC · "fouillis" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fouilles" and "fouillis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fouilles" or "fouillis"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fouilles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouillis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #146,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fouilles" and "fouillis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feuillus vs fouillis". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #146,125 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.